I’ve always felt it’s the seventh overtime that separates the men from the boys. And if that’s the case, then the members of the Virginia men’s lacrosse team are men. If you watched the Big East basketball tournament, you know any scrub can go six. It’s really in that seventh OT where heroes dwell, especially when the overtimes are sudden death. One hero from Saturday’s game is sophomore goalie Adam Ghitelman. He’s a man. He stood between the pipes with the knowledge that any mistake by him would mean the end of the game. In addition to the 16 saves he made during regulation, he snatched six more in extra periods — each time effectively saving the game, each save equivalent to a game-winning goal. These weren’t chump shots, either: I’m talking about rips from 15 yards or closer. He definitely didn’t have any gimmies.
You know who else is a man? Junior midfielder Brian Carroll. It’s not just that he scored the game-winning goal, but it’s the way he did it. This rocket was a shot and a half. It was a lefty shot — from a natural righty, mind you — on the run, moving away from the goal, 15 yards away and at a very narrow angle. That’s pretty much as tough as a shot gets, and I still don’t blame the Maryland goalie for not stopping it — this thing had a motor. Oh, and yeah, he also had the game-tying goal that sent the game to overtime. If you’ve followed Carroll’s career, you’ll know why his new nickname is “Mr. Overtime.” Saturday was the third game-winning goal of his career — a Virginia record.
Another person who is a man, though a lesser-known man, is junior goalie Mark Wade. He doesn’t get as much playing time as Ghitelman does, but certainly made the most of his limited time Saturday. When Ghitelman was penalized at the end of the first overtime and had to serve a minute in the penalty box, Virginia called on Wade to take Ghitelman’s spot. Wade had been on the sideline for two hours just standing there. It was sudden-death overtime, and Virginia was a man-down on defense. The ground was miserably wet, which plays havoc with a goalie’s ability to judge bouncing shots. And the game was put on the shoulders of Wade. As Maryland worked the ball around the goal, I thought to myself that if the Terps had a chance to score, this was it, and after the Maryland offense ripped a shot at the goal, I was sure they would. Clearly Wade had another idea. His idea — which he perfectly executed — was to make the save of the game. After stopping it, he then had to dive to keep the momentum of the ball in his basket and come up with possession that allowed Virginia to then run out the rest of the penalty on offense. Wade made his way off the field to be replaced by Ghitelman after playing for just 60 seconds, but he managed to squeeze an entire game’s worth of awesomeness into that one minute.
Suffice to say, if you came to the game Saturday, you got to see it all. The first half started out as slow as a soccer match in the offensive department. I had been spoiled with high-scoring games from the Cavaliers up to this point, so I was a bit nonplussed by the 3-2 score going into halftime — even if it did favor Virginia.
The game really started to heat up after the break, though. The Terrapins slowly began to pull away from Virginia as the fourth quarter began, stubbornly clinging to a three goal lead.
I kept asking myself when Virginia was going to turn it on and win the game. Up until this point in the game, the Cavaliers didn’t deserve to win. They came out lazy and lackadaisical. Though some mistakes were simply because of the poor field conditions, Virginia’s passing and catching was inexcusably abysmal.
At around the six-minute mark, the tides began to turn. Freshman attack Steele Stanwick scored a goal that launched a comeback that erased Maryland’s three-goal lead in just 62 seconds. Apparently, Virginia was not content to go quietly into the night. Minutes later, with the score still tied, Virginia found itself with a two-man advantage, and I was sure between that and the momentum, Virginia had it. Maryland, however, also was not going to lay down and die.
Even as the teams prepared for overtime, though, I was sure the Cavaliers had the game in the bag. Virginia was the better team, so more time just meant more of a chance for the Cavaliers to prove this.
When the Terps won the faceoff that kicked off overtime and charged toward the Cavalier cage with the rest of Virginia’s midfield trailing behind, I was quickly proven wrong — more so when Maryland whipped a shot by Ghitelman into the back of the goal to apparently win the game. As I packed up my belongings to leave the press box, I wondered if I had just witnessed the shortest overtime in history — just nine seconds. In hindsight, this thought would turn out to be very ironic.
Controversy ensued. Did Maryland call a timeout before the shot? That doesn’t make sense — they had a fast break going, a perfect scoring opportunity. Why would they call timeout?
I’m not going to call it luck on Virginia’s part, but ... yeah, ‘luck’ is exactly what I’m going to call it. It seemed Virginia had just been defeated, plain and simple. But it turned out the Maryland coach had asked the officials to call his team’s timeout if the Terps won the faceoff and immediately advanced the ball into an offensive play. As a Wahoo, of course I want to think Virginia beat Maryland with pure skill. But, in actuality, Virginia lucked out because of a goofy Maryland mistake. And so, what at first appeared to be the shortest overtime in history, slowly — very slowly — became the longest.
It’s usually by the fourth overtime of a drawn-out classic like this that everyone realizes that they are watching something special. In fact, if you go beyond three or four overtimes, the names for the extended periods start to sound silly. It’s called quintuple overtime, right? And after that, I have no idea. Is the sixth called hextuple or sextuple? Then septuple overtime?
Games with seven overtimes aren’t supposed to happen in this sport. Lacrosse is an offensive game. It’s designed for scoring. A good defense doesn’t stop scoring — it limits it. The 3-2 first half was weird enough, but 25 scoreless minutes? That’s borderline absurd. While all this was happening, we in the press box were scurrying around, trying to figure out what length records the game was breaking, minute by minute. We were sure that by the third overtime it was the longest game in Maryland’s history. By the fifth it was the longest in either school’s history. As we entered the seventh (which we looked up the name for: septuple overtime), we confirmed that this was the longest game ever in NCAA lacrosse.
Meanwhile, some of the best and worst lacrosse I have ever seen was being played on the field. While each team had its own share of boneheaded turnovers, each team was also making viewers of ESPN2, which covered the game, salivate because of all the astounding defense on display. With more games reaching national broadcast demonstrating the drama of pitting elite lacrosse teams against each other, maybe lacrosse won’t lose out national coverage to far less interesting fare such as women’s NIT basketball and third-time reruns of the World Series of Poker.
This astonishing game — 85 minutes of stalwart defense punctuated by spurts of explosive offense — saw Virginia studs Ghitelman, Wade and Carroll, along with the entire line of Virginia defenders, stave off disaster after disaster, including three Terrapin extra-man advantages from penalties. Virginia overcame its poor play during regulation with a little help from a phantom timeout call at the start of OT to walk away with a hard-fought win, even though Maryland contained some of the best, fastest and most athletic players in the country for most of the game.
We all know, though, that all good things must come to an end. In collegiate lacrosse, there are winners and losers — there are no ties. Mr. Overtime delivered, and another page in what is shaping up to be one of the greatest seasons in Virginia lacrosse history was written. As the Wahoo cheers erupted and the Virginia squad piled on Ghitelman and Carroll, Terrapins were strewn in agony across the pitch.
The evening wore on, longer than any had ever expected, but after all was said and done, and after Virginia came the closest yet to tarnishing its immaculate record, the Cavaliers again refused to go quietly into the night.
Read More
Scott Stadium selected to host 2026 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championships
By Michael Liebermann | 21 hours agoThe biggest event on the college lacrosse calendar will unfold on Grounds.
Abysmal start proves too much to overcome as Virginia exits ACC Tournament early
By Ryan Weiner | 2 days agoIf the Cavaliers make the NCAA Tournament, they cannot afford to play another game like this.
As the Walshes take their final bow, the swimming world pauses
By Xander Tilock | 2 days agoHow could anyone possibly describe the success of this duo?
